Explanation:

- Let the total number of valid votes be \( V \).

- The losing candidate gets 40% of the valid votes, so they receive \( 0.4V \).

- The winning candidate gets the rest, which is 60% of the valid votes, equivalent to 2940 votes.

- Therefore, \( 0.6V = 2940 \).

- Solving for \( V \):

$$

V = \frac{2940}{0.6} = 4900

$$

- 2% of the total votes were invalid, so 98% were valid.

- Let \( T \) be the total number of votes polled.

- Since 98% of \( T \) were valid votes:

$$

0.98T = 4900 \Rightarrow T = \frac{4900}{0.98} = 5000

$$

- The total number of votes polled is 5000.

Your Answer:

- Option 2: 5000 is correct, as shown by the calculations.